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OF MATTER. 



THE LAWS AND THE 



.LIFE THEREOF 



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By JOHN C. STALLCUP. 



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PUBLICATION LIMITED TO TWO HUNDRED COPIES 



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Copyright, 1892, By John C. v Stallcup. 



OF MATTER, THE LAWS AND THE LIFE 

THEREOF 



OF THE EARTH 

The following comprise some of the facts which have 
been found and accepted by Geologists. 

I. 

That there have been different periods upon the earth, 
each of an order of rocks and life peculiar thereto, and that 
the said rocks and debris thereof contain the fossil remains 
of the things of life of that period of the earth's existence. 

II. 

That the earth has always contained within its crust a 
molten material of intense heat. 

III. 

■ That the different mountain ranges of the earth were not 
projected and formed* at the same time, but at different 
times and w r ith long periods of time intervening. 

IV. 

That the mountain ranges of the earth constitute elevated 
rims on the sides of the continents, or were so situated 
when made. 

V. 
That mountain ranges, as to their magnitude, are in a 
manner commensurate with the magnitude of the ocean 

i 



2 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

upon which they border, that is to say, the larger the ocean 
the larger the mountains facing the same. 

VI. 

The mountain ranges are produced by a side pressure 
force from the ocean side thereof, together with an uplift 
force from underneath, elevating, breaking and crushing 
the earth's crust upon a large scale, generally running 
northerly and southerly at the ocean's edge of continents 
and accompanied with the action of intense heat and water. 

VII. 

That at times during former periods a warm and genial 
climate prevailed all over the now temperate, and far into 
the now frigid zones of the earth, causing tropical products 
to grow, where now ice prevails the year round. 

VIII. 

That at other times, during the earth's existence, nearly 
all the earth from the poles towards the equator to the 
sun's path was covered with an immense body of snow and 
ice, these times being now referred to as the glacial period 
or periods. 

IX. 

That all around the earth near to and towards, if not at 
the poles, there is a massive deposit of ice which seems 
permanently established there, and capable of resisting all 
efforts of the sun's heat towards its removal. 

X. 

That the cold of this region, and the heat of the tropics, 
produce the main air currents, and ocean currents, which 
now distribute the heat and the cold upon the earth. 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 3 

1 . It seems evident that the facts disclosed by the geo- 
logical record of the earth as impressed in and upon its face, 
since the organization of the solar system and this planet as 
a part thereof, were so written there by the action of the 
elements enclosed now by the earth's crust, the elements 
composing the earth's crust, and the atmosphere and water 
upon the earth, together with the action of the sun and 
moon, and that the relations and actions of the other bodies 
of space towards the earth since the time stated have been 
constant and not distinctly productive of any of the things 
just enumerated. 

2. Many attempts have been made to account for and 
harmonize these and other remarkable facts found in this 
geological record, all of which have been more or less 
unsatisfactory and unacceptable; the attempt here made to 
that end, is based upon a proper recognition of the results 
necessarily produced by the upheavals which produced the 
mountains of the earth, together with other self-evident 
facts, viz : that there was a time since the Archaean period 
when these deposits of ice and cold, constituting the two 4 
frigid rims or bowls of ice at the poles of the earth, were 
not in existence at all — that they necessarily got there 
through moisture in the atmosphere — that on the sun's 
path an immense quantity of heat is produced by the sun 
on the earth — that when these deposits of ice were not upon 
the earth this heat was distributed differently from what it 
now is. 

3. I think it is evident that the earth has met with 
several catastrophes: that in each of the same nearly, if not 
entirely all, the living things then on the earth were destroyed; 



4 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

that hy such catastrophes it is that we have marked the 
several geological periods of rocks and life upon the earth; 
that after each catastrophe life upon the earth was again 
reinstated by contact of the sun's heat with the then new sur- 
face and moisture of the earth impregnated with the 
elements of the ocean's water and the earth's internal ele- 
ments; and that these catastrophes w 7 ere produced by 
upheavals of the earth's crust resulting in mountain- 
making. 

4. The glacial periods were produced by heat, water 
and cold, and I think in comparatively rapid succession, 
evidenced by many facts, notably the hairy elephant found 
preserved intact in the ice of Siberia from the last 
catastrophe. 

5. The action of heat and water in the upheavals on 
the ocean's edge in mountain-making, cracking, crushing, 
heaving and boiling a great portion of the earth's crust and 
ocean water like a pot of mush, eruption upon eruption for 
quite a length of time converted to steam a vast portion of 
the water of the ocean as it came in contact with the heat 
from beneath the earth's crust caused by the upheaval 
thereof ; thus, the endless water of the ocean came in con- 
tact with the endless heat within the earth; thus, the boil- 
ing water ascended in steam, producing a dense, moist 
atmosphere enveloping the entire earth; dense, warm and 
deep. 

6. In time it descended upon the earth in awful rain, 
until it turned to snow and ice, thus producing the ice of 
the glacial period. The sun's heat being thus upon this 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 5 

dense state of the earth's atmosphere, and the intense heat 
of the earth's surface being suppressed by the ocean water 
and rain, in time the cold commenced to set in and the 
moisture of the atmosphere began to fall and congeal. 

7. The change from the moist, heated state to the cold, 
glacial state was as follows : The cooling of this moist 
atmosphere first occurred at the greatest distance from the 
equator and from the place of the upheavals ; and the fall- 
ing and freezing of the moisture there first commenced, and 
the cold then rapidl} 7 intensified, and thence advanced to- 
wards the equator. 

8. After the fall of this great quantity of moisture, 
much of it being in the form of ice, upon the earth on both 
sides of the sun's pathway, the dense state of the atmos- 
phere was dissipated and the sun again shone upon the 
earth, that portion covered with ice as well as that part not 
so covered; then the thaw and the glacial movements com- 
menced and progressed with the work of ridding the earth 
of this pall of ice ; but such work in time reached its limit, 
leaving that rim or bowl of ice around each of the poles, 
and thereby leaving portions of the earth bereft of the 
genial climate which prior to mountains prevailed all over 
the earth. 

9. Before these catastrophes laid down more snow and 
ice than the sun could afterwards melt, the cheerful rays of 
the sun and the unobstructed heat from the flow of the 
warm water of the ocean at the equator gave warmth to 
every zone, but since the deposit of this ice around the poles 
and its permanent establishment there, the warm climes 



6 Of Matter, the Laics and the Life Thereof 

have receded towards the equator, and the air currents of 
the earth, and the water currents of the ocean, in the main 
are caused by and subject to the cold of this ice and the 
heat of the sun's path. 

10. By the evaporation caused b}^ such an upheaval the 
size and weight of the ocean were greatly decreased, but by 
the thaw the water again returned to the ocean where it is 
again pressing towards the distant center of gravity, and the 
weakening of the earth's crust proceeds (by fusing, and by 
penetration of vapor from beneath) at the place where the 
new mountains and the ocean join. So are the mountain- 
making forces constantly in action, and are now pressing to 
another catastrophe unless the earth's crust is now grown 
thick enough to resist the forces to which it has heretofore 
3 T ielded ; which hope, however, to my mind, is without facts 
to uphold it. By looking upon the map and observing the 
mountains on the western border of the American conti- 
nents, it will be seen that the earth's crust at the ocean's 
edge must have been weakened there b}^ the breaks and 
cracks by the upheaval process there at the time thereof, by 
fractures on the under side thereof, and by fusing, by reason 
of its being depressed into the molten heat underlying the 
earth's crust ; then, whether for these reasons, or for others, 
it is conceded by the geologists that the weakest place on 
the earth's crust must always be along the ocean's edge. 

ii. The great scope of [the Pacific extends away off 
westward and presses its great weight towards the distant 
center of the earth, thus producing the side pressure which 
with the uplift forces hereinafter referred to have heretofore 
and again must break the crust of the earth at the weak 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 7 

place indicated, producing another upheaval proportioned 
in magnitude to the weight of the ocean there. 

12. It must be remembered that, in the upheavals which 
produced the mountain ranegs upon the west side of the 
American continents, there was involved in the erupted 
portion of the earth's crust hundreds of miles in width, by 
thousands in length ; and it would seem evident therefrom 
that all living things on the earth would perish in such 
eruptions, convulsions and upheavals. 

13. It will be seen that the water of the ocean (unlike 
the other classes of matter of the earth's composition) con- 
stitutes a distinct and segregated element and of a 
weight proportionately nearly equal to that of the earth's 
crust, of incalculable magnitude, restless and surging ; so 
it is evident that the weak places in the earth's crust sup- 
porting this great weight of water will be effected thereby 
and finally yield thereto. Especially when a corresponding 
pressure is going on upon the opposite side of the earth's 
surface, so that we have much the same result as we would 
in pressing a ripe peach, viz : a rupture of the skin at the 
weak place and a protrusion there ; a map of the American 
continents with their mountain ranges and the oceans on 
each side constitute a diagram of this view. 

14. It is conceded that the projections of the mountain 
ranges of the earth have occurred at the then ocean's edge 
of continents, and that the earth's crust is weakest at the 
ocean's edge, but the explanation given by some geologists 
for the latter fact, (viz : sedimentary deposits there) is 
vague, and to me unintelligible. 



8 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

I have already set forth the claim that the ocean's weight 
has had much to do with upheavals of the earth's crust into 
wrinkles or mountain ranges, and have made slight refer- 
ence to the probability that the under side of the earth's 
crust, at the edge of the ocean or the foot of the mountains, 
would b}^ depression into the molten matter there be made 
thinner and weaker by fusion. 

I now direct attention to another, which I believe to be 
the prime and main factor in the making of mountains, and 
which seems to have entirely escaped the consideration of 
heologists. It rests upon the following facts which have 
come under my observation : 

First, descending from the summit of the Rocky moun- 
tains eastward there is a large water-shed. 

Second, it is conceded that but a very small portion of 
the water of this surface ever reaches the foot of the moun- 
tains on the surface ; that only a small portion of that which 
flows into the Platte River ~ever comes down to the plains ; 
that instead, it penetrates the earth and flows down under 
the hard strata of the earth's crust, showing that there is 
a subterraneous passage for the water, and thus it is that 
we have the artisan well-flow of water from these subterra- 
neous deposits of water on the eastern slope down to the sea 
level. 

To what depths this water penetrates, and to what tem- 
perature of heat it reaches in this way is not known, but it 
is evident that if it penetrates to a sufficient depth to come 
in contact with the heat underlying it, then steam would be 
produced and thereby a force in proportion to the quantity 
of water and heat thus brought in contact. Now this pro- 
cess of penetration, subterraneous passage and storage of 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 9 

water, far into the earth's crust, and underneath the hard 
strata thereof, which occur on the inland side of the moun- 
tains, likewise occur on the ocean's side thereof, so that far 
underneath the ocean bottom, right over where the fusing 
occurs which has been described, there is a great body of 
water thus deposited. 

These deposits of water if deep enough in the earth's 
crust would be in contact with the heat, and produce steam, 
and thereby an uplifting force. That these deposits are of 
sufficient depth to come in contact with such heat seems 
apparent in the light of known facts and in accord with the 
familiar characteristics of the laws of gravity. 

15. Let the Geologist go to the mines of Virginia City in 
the State of Nevada, and note the rate of increase of heat as 
he descends into the earth's crust — he will learn that it is 
hot enough to convert water to steam before a sea level is 
reached ; then let him go directl} r west, out into the Pacific 
ocean, say a hundred miles or so, and there sink an artesan 
well ; can it be doubted that he would strike beneath the 
hard strata of the earth's crust a vein or deposit of water 
that would produce an artesian flow to the surface if the 
ocean's water was not there to prevent the experiment? 
and can it be doubted that corresponding to the wrinkle of 
the earth's crust represented by the mountain range border- 
ing the ocean, there was at the same time produced a similar 
and corresponding wrinkle out at sea on the under side of 
the earth's crust, and that that wrinkle or depression sank 
into the molten heat there, producing results among which 
were the following : First, a forcing of molten matter up 
against the underside of the mountain elevation. Second : 
A fusing to some extent of the underside of that portion of 



io Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

the earth's crust, which is depressed into the molten heat, 
and the earth's crust thereby made thinner and weaker 
than at other places. Hence, it follows that the heat and 
molten matter therelry approaches nearer to the water in the 
crevasses, caverns, veins and seams in the earth's crust, and 
and thus it is that the water there is converted to steam 
and the force is produced which lifts up and makes the 
mountain ranges. 

16. The ocean's weight is the source of the side pressure 
and the steam force is the source of the uplift ; that both 
these forces operate gradually for a long period of time is 
evident ; and to my mind that they operate rapidly . in 
the final climax is also evident ; and herein lies the 
adjustment and merger of the views of those of the Cuvier 
school of geologists, viz : the Catastrophic, and those of the 
school opposing this view. 

As this portion of the earth's crust lying under the sea is 
lifted up by this force, the crevasses or fissures or seams 
where this water is confined and wmere it is hottest, are 
widened and the heated water and steam are extended in 
all directions, but mainly in the direction running parallel 
with the shore of the sea. 

The evidences of a side pressure from the ocean side and 
an uplift from beneath, are found all through the geological 
record of the mountain ranges on the west side of the 
North American continent ; so also is the evidence of the 
contact of heat and water found in these mountain forma- 
tions. 

These facts, I think, give us a light by which we may 
retrace and quite accurately read the record of events in and 
upon the earth. 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof i r 

This contact of water and heat produces a steam force 
which lifts the earth's crust above it — gradually for a period 
of time until the force accumulates, and the lift-up has pro- 
gressed until the force is sufficient to burst the bounds, 
when rapid eruption and catastrophe follow, and in the 
rapid and catastrophic finish of the work of this accumulated 
force the mountain ranges are produced, elevating ocean 
bottom to great heights above the ocean level; and it is thus 
that that portion of the earth's crust and the ocean water 
with their salt, and other ingredients, go through a grand 
smelting process, producing the various mineral veins and 
deposits found in the mountains. 

17. I believe in the theory held by many, viz : That the 
materials of the earth are denser and weightier at the centre 
and become less dense and heavy proceeding from the cen- 
tre outward until the very top of the atmosphere is reached ; 
and this is likewise true of the molten matter under the 
earth's crust and likewise true with the melted and the solid 
and whether all melted or only part melted. 

18. The importance of the great carrying business of 
heat and cold to and from the equator and the poles by the 
ocean currents, I think have been fully appreciated, and the 
effects thereof have been fully understood in all'their bear- 
ings as they would be seen if these currents were to cease ; 
were it not for the ice at the poles, we would be without 
ihe conditions to exchange cold for heat, and this commerce 
would cease. 

For a moment view the earth as it was during the last 
glacial period, with the ice at an incalculable depth at each 
pole and extending towards the equator ; these ocean cur- 



i 2 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

rents then did not exist as now, if at all ; then all the sun's 
heat was held at home, at the equator, with no interchang- 
ing currents of heat and cold in any direction. So the cold 
in a manner stood like an unbroken wall at either side, for 
all the ocean and air currents w r ere beoken by the catastro- 
phe which preceded the glacial, and so remained broken 
until new and entirely different ones were formed obedient 
to the law. 

It is evident, I think, that there was then at the equator 
a condition of heat and moisture, also of electric and mag- 
netic current entirely different from w T hat we have now. 

19. To my mind it appears evident that under this con- 
dition of things, by the simple operation of eternal laws, of 
whose existence and nature we catch some glimpses, even 
now ; there w r ere such contacts of the different elements of 
the matter, of the sun and of the earth that the life upon 
the earth was thereby conceived, by the contact of the sun's 
rays with the earth's spawn in such eruption ; and that all 
life upon the earth thus started again and in that infinite 
variet} 7 -, which is characteristic of the expression of the laws 
of the universe, everywhere that they are observable by the 
mind of man. 

20. Evolution goes not to that illimitable extent claimed 
by the Darwinian school, but is confined to its limits, at 
least so far as life upon this earth is concerned. 

21. It is now conceded in the scientific circles that elec- 
tricity and light are identical. Does it not follow that the 
oil found in the earth, together with the coal and gas, the 
grease in the pine and the fir, the fat in the ox and the hog, 



Of Matter ; the Laws and the Life Thereof 13 

are simply stored electricity, all having their sources in the 
sun's heat and its contacts, and does it not follow that elec- 
tricity and heat are identical, that the internal portion of 
the earth is a mere storehouse of electricity gathered from 
the domain of space, and thus stored in the formation of the 
earth as an inhabitant of space, that electricity, so to speak, 
is the vital force and source of all life and all forms of mat- 
ter in the universe ; that without electricity the universe 
and its laws would cease, that all matter would be dead 
and fall asunder, and is it not thus, and from thence that 
all life and all forms of matter come ? and thus we have the 
endless changes and the endless rounds of endless circles from 
no beginning to no ending ; and thus it is that the matter 
of the universe is alive, and that all manner of living crea- 
tues spring therefrom, according to the condition of the 
elements and the contacts thereof, and that force and matter, 
time and space and the laws thereof are eternal. 

22. These are my reasons for thinking that matter is 
eternal. First, time, space and laws are eternal, that is, 
ever were and ever will be (by the word matter all things, 
electricity magnetism, etc., are comprehended). Second, all 
matter is and ever was obedient to law. Third, something 
comes not from nothing. Fourth, if the anomalous con- 
dition of law 7 without matter to operate on — that is to sa} r 
law\s of matter without matter — if such condition of noth- 
ingness had ever existed it never would have changed but 
always would have so remained ; therefore the existence of 
matter under the dominion of eternal law is proof positive 
that the}^ are coequal. Matter and the laws thereof ever were 
and ever will be. 



OF MAN - 

23. Man, like all things else of life on the earth, comes 
of contact of her elements with those of the sun. The dense 
atmosphere which covered the earth during the convulsions 
of mountain making, necessarily retained its heat near to 
and at the equator, and withstood the cold which prevailed 
over the remainder of the earth's surface soon after the cool- 
ing commenced. The electric and magnetic currents of the 
earth were effected by the catastrophe, so that our mother 
earth thus moistened, heated and conditioned in her mag- 
netic and electric flush by contact with the sun's power, 
through the long streamers or rays of light and life therefrom, 
conceived and produced at and near the equator from that 
spawn of her eternal resources that egg form of life which is 
the first form of any and all life discernable to the perceptions 
of man. In that expression of the law, in that production 
of life, an infinite variety of creatures were shown, and thu^ 
did life again start after the catastrophes. These creatures, 
by contact amongst themselves in obedience to the laws of 
their being, reproduce and propagate themselves. And all 
this is typified in the puddle of water on the surface of the 
earth exposed to the sun's force. When a drop of it is 
brought under the magnifying glass, we see the multitudes 
of living creatures who live there, and note, too, the infinite 
variety thereof. There is no more mystery in the one crea- 
tion than in the other ; they are alike and obedient to the 
same laws. The difference in the creatures of the two crea- 
tions is measured by the difference in the conditions of the 
elements and contacts producing the two. 

14 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 15 

24. It- will be remembered that artesian water, such as 
we have in Colorado, isentirely clear of life when it flows to 
the surface. 

25. The earth is truty the mother to all things, she 
nourishes upon her bosom, and with the aid of the sun she 
has given birth to them all — all of the varied families of 
men, animals, fowls, fishes, trees, herbs and insects ; and 
the variety was as great if not greater in the first instance 
in each creation in the respective periods as ever afterwards 
in the same period. 

26. The many combinations of heat and moisture which 
produce life illustrate and show in a typical way, I think, 
the source of life on this earth to be as stated. 

27. The heat and the moisture which grow and mature 
the plant, decay and destroy it ; and in like manner is man 
produced and destroyed, the same forces which make, 
unmake him and this seems in accord with the laws of per- 
sistent force, and eternal and continuous change. 

28. All things of the universe, so far as we can trace 
them, seem typical one of another. 

29. Electricity is omnipresent and doubtless is (so to 
speak) the nerve force of the universe and may be the basis 
of all force and all life. 

The source or origin of life in the puddle of water 
referred to, is typical of the source and origin of the life of 
large creatures. The life we see in the water exposed to 
the sun's heat is in the same degree and fully typical of the 



1 6 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

life which sprang from the condition of things pro.duced by 
the upheavals in mountain making, as I have conceived the 
process thereof, and in accordance with the same laws. 

30. I believe in the Cuvier theory of geology, to- wit : 
Catastrophic with new creations after each catastrophe. 
While Cuvier nor any other to my knowledge ever made 
any attempt to state the cause of these catastrophes, I think 
it is manifest that they occurred in the mountain making of 
the earth, and that the process making thereof was rapid 
and in the manner stated. The conditions of the elements 
of the earth, her heat and moisture in contact with the sun's 
heat, during and following the grand convulsions of the 
earth in her mountain making were as much grander than 
the conditions and elements producing the living creatures 
in the puddle of water, as man and the animals are grander 
than those creatures. 

31. This creation or production of man and the animals 
and all things else on earth, was expressed by this law the 
same as the type I have referred to, and not by producing a 
single kind or class, but by producing a variety of men and 
animals ; whales and fishes, eagles and birds, oaks and 
weeds, etc., in the first instance. 

32. This view is not in accord with the Darwinian 
theory of Evolution and the descent of Man. The French 
w r ere the leaders in scientific thought a hundred years ago, 
and so continued. Cuvier in his day stood at the head of 
them all. The French have never adopted the Darwinian 
theory but have emphatically rejected it ; and this is sig- 
nificant, in view of the fact that much of the lore our 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 17 

scientists are now building upon, is from this same Cuvier 
and the French thinkers of his day. Nothing of Cuvier' s 
theories are rejected except his catastrophic theory with its 
new creations, and these are rejected by Haeckel and others 
of the Darwinian school for the reason that they are sup- 
posed to conflict with the Darwinian theory of Evolution. 

33. L,aw is eternal ; it will produce the same to-day that 
it did yesterday if the conditions are the same ; and if the 
conditions are similar the products will likewise be similar. 
By the law of eternal force there never is any halt, hence 
the conditions can never be the same. It is apparent to the 
mind of man that persistent force, continuous and eternal 
change are often characteristics of the laws of matter. 
HaeckePs two Volumes entitled ' ' The History of Creation ' ' 
constitute probably the strongest and most exhaustive argu- 
ment in favor of the Darwinian theory of creation ; how- 
ever he recognizes the fact that Cuvier and the whole French 
mind including Prof. Agassiz are opposed to the same. 

The catastrophic theory with its new creations seems in 
accord with all things observable, by the mind of man. 

The .single instance of the elephant in the ice of Siberia, 
seems to me to be of more weight than all that is relied 
upon in support of the Darwinian theory. This elephant 
is a product of a period since which a catastrophe has 
occurred, and one too, which has changed the clime of 
Siberia from a clime where the elephant lived, to eternal 
ice ; that the catastrophe was rapid in its progress from 
warm to wet and from wet to cold, is evidenced in the per- 
fect preservation of the elephant as he was in his life ; had 
there been intervening time the flesh upon his bones would 
not have been there when he was lodged in the freeze of 



1 8 Of Matter, the Laivs and the Life Thereof 

the water which from thence hitherto had held him intact, 
so that the dogs gnaw his flesh when he is taken from his 
tomb of ice where he has been for thousands if not millions 
of years. 

34. This one instance and the facts shown thereby, are 
of much greater weight than the main points of the Dar- 
winian theory, viz : Embryology and the similarity of the 
points found in man and the animals. 

All things produced by the same laws must be similar, 
the variety occurs according to the peculiar conditions and 
circumstances attending at the time and place of their 
inception. In the great family of planets, suns and stars, 
etc., inhabiting space, there is a great variety, yet similiar- 
ity. We see the same similitude yet variety in the weeds, 
the grasses and the herbs with their great variety in medic- 
inal and other qualities ; why not the same with animals 
and man ; such seems to be the manner of expression under 
the eternal laws of the universe. And there is nothing to 
show that the lines of distinction between the vegetable and 
animal kingdoms were not always as marked as the}^ are 
now, nor is there anything to show that there was ever dur- 
ing this period any less variety than now in either. 

35. The seed of life is in the mother earth, probably in 
that portion impregnated with the elements of the ocean's 
water and the earth's internal heat ; the sun's contact there- 
with is what brings forth life and living things, and there is 
no more mystery in this than in the ordinary contact of 
insects, animals and man, which lead to and produce con- 
ception and life. And such life is fashioned by the condi- 
tions of the elements attending. This characteristic seems 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 19 

to be marked and emblazoned in glaring colors in all the 
records of onr earth of past and present time. 

36. Truths are not made nor created. Natural laws, 
laws of force, of space, of matter, of time, mathematical 
truths, and principles, are eternal ; they ever were along and 
co-existent with time, space, and matter. 

37. It seems that man is a recent comer here ; but yes- 
terday he did not exist on this earth nor anywhere else, so 
far as we can know ; there is no record of him in the geo- 
logical records of the past periods of the earth's career. 
This is really the morning of the first day of his existence 
here or anywhere. Counting a geological period a day it 
is probable that this may be the last day of his existence 
here or anywhere ; for doubtless this earth will meet with 
another catastrophe in which her creatures will perish, and 
the new creation which will follow will be in accord with 
the elements and their conditions then. 

The grandest specimen of that expression here then of 
the laws may be inferior to man and it may be superior 
to him. In this great machinery of the universe held 
together and run by these laws, laws co-existent with time 
and space, where, and what is Divinity ? And is there any 
cord of sympathy between Him and man ? I have searched 
for it, in the wake of the cyclone and the earthquake, in the 
prisons for those bereft of reason and hope, in the groans of 
the tortured, in the roaring ocean, in the starry night, in 
the records of our mother earth, but in vain. These, and 
all that I can see or find are dumb subjects to relentless and 
eternal laws, that know not pity nor sympathy. Laws 
unknown and unknowable — before which man and all 



20 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

creatures of the earth, from the king on his throne to the 
spider in his web, struggle for the maintainance of their 
frail existence. 

38. Man, like all things we can see, is the creattire and 
the victim of these laws ; he is the highest order of all 
creatures of which we have knowledge ; hence the extrava- 
gant conceptions we have of his possibilities and his rank. 
The flashes of his intellect are like the dew drops in the 
morning sun, the rainbow in its dazzling splendor ; these, 
and all things, man, grass, and the animals, come and go 
alike ; the incident, ^the sport, the playthings of the eternal 
laws of the universe, and there is no beginning nor end to 
these laws and their operations. 

39. Time is eternal ; that is, ever was and ever will be. 
The human being stands in the overawing presence of this 
truth like a bubble in the boundless ocean. 

40. Space is eternal ; that is, without beginning or end- 
ing. While the human mind is able to state this truth it 
cannot comprehend its significance. 

41. Matter, including the elements from which all 
things come, Electricity and no one knows what else, is 
likewise eternal and has always be#n subject to laws. 
While there can be no doubt of this, man cannot compre- 
hend the full force thereof. • 

42. These elements are co-existent with the laws of the 
universe, to which they are and ever have been subject, and 
all things that are or will be, accord therewith and flow 
therefrom. 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 21 

43. If these laws and Divinity are one and the same, 
then Divinity is without human sympathy ; not a personal 
being ; not fashioned like the human creature ; and as yet 
is without sympathy with him in his woes and his insig- 
nificance. 

44. In each production of a man, whether in the orig- 
inal creation or the subsequent repetition of a similar pro- 
cess by man in his own sexual operations, a new identity is 
produced, an identity which did not before exist. It would 
seem that when these materials bloom and decay and again 
go into the boundless sea of matter, that this identity is 
lost ; the same with man as with any other thing ; the dew- 
drop, the rainbow, the insect, the animal and man ; all seem 
doomed to lose their identity in the destruction of the life 
thereof, of which there is no retraction. 

45. Man finds himself in a struggle to maintain his exist- 
ence, and this is done by selfish action ; for selfishness in this 
struggle is essential to his existence. It is not in violation 
of law, but in accord with the law of self-preservation. 
Man in his present environments cannot get away from 
the dominion of this law any more than the rattlesnake can 
get away from his rattles and his fangs of poison. The hope 
that man will learn to give his cloak to him who has 
taken his coat, seems vain and delusive ; in his 
attempt so to do he sacrifices himself upon the altar of 
a beautiful ideality. 

Man cannot avoid this struggle for existence, for he can- 
not annul the laws of his being, neither can he reverse or 
change them. By these laws, exertion is necessary to his 
existence and he is likewise b}^ the same laws impelled to 



22 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

that exertion. So long as this is so, selfishness and domin- 
ion are unavoidable, and of necessity are characteristics of 
man's actions ; with the rule referred to, as an ideality, the 
exact opposite of the reality. Not until exertion ceases to 
be necessary to existence can the character of the struggle 
be changed; it may become more refined and less barbar- 
ous but never changed in its real character so long as man 
remains the animal he now is. 

46. By Force in the domain of matter we have contact 
of the different elements thereof. 

The existence of Force in the universe without contact, 
would be anomalous, impossible ; such a condition of things 
could not be. If there was no force there would be no con- 
tact, and as a consequence there would be nothing. 

47. The presence of force is the evidence of the existence 
of matter and of law. The existence of the things we see 
produced by force and matter under these laws is of the evi- 
dence that force and matter are eternal and that the laws 
thereof are likewise eternal. 

It is by the contact of different elements of matter under 
the.se laws that all things are produced, all life, all death, 
and all change. These things force, matter and law, 
extend beyond the range of comprehension in the smallest 
intellect of man. 

48. Man has a beginning, he therefore has an ending, 
Time, space, force, matter, and the laws thereof are with- 
out beginning and without ending. 

49. In the creation of the insect world we see a type of 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 23 

the conditions necessary to produce the higher order of 
creatures on the earth. There is no more difference in the 
physical structure of an insect and a man than there is in the 
intellect of the insect of the man ; in short, there is the 
same harmony in the one as in the other. 

50. What right have we to assume that man alone is 
exempt from destruction ; that he is dual, and that he lives 
after he is dead ? It is said his intellect, his soul, survives 
and does not perish with him. Like the fragrance of the 
flower, a thought may be preserved if it is bottled — 
recorded — but the brain, the passion that produced 
it, must perish. Let delusion vanish, and let the case 
be viewed in the dauntless rays of its own light. — If 
the sun himself were to decay, die, and fall asunder, 
would his streamers of light and life survive him, and con- 
tinue to flow ? If not, then the intellect of man cannot sur- 
vive him. 

51 It is unfortunate that we are not higher or lower, 
for as it is, we have perceptions and consciousness enough 
to be made sick of our fate. If we were of a less degree, 
like the animal, we would be unconscious of our insignificance 
and of our fate, and would bask in our momentary existence 
untroubled by the light which now flickers across our intel- 
lectual vision. 

52. The intellect of man revels in delusion. It feeds on 
an imaginary diet ; with the wings of imagination it flies 
from earth to heaven ; from the real earth to the ideal 
heaven. It grasps the opposite of its distress ; its domain 
is in the real and the ideal worlds ; in the ideal world it 
finds balm for the wounds of the real world. 



24 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

Man is the only creature on this earth that stands in need 
of this ideal balm, this delusion, this deception. L,ife is 
made endurable by this delusion ; the intellect for its own 
preservation exists upon this deception, this delusion ; 
they are its diet. To beautify the ugly things of the real 
world it flees to the ideal. As I have said, the intellect 
grasps the opposite, the counterpart of the distress. 

In its ideal domain there is a delusive balm for the dis- 
tresses of its real domain, and it is by this trait, peculiar to 
the intellect of man, that he knocks at the ideal doors of an 
ideal heaven and of an ideal life eternal. And by these 
ideal props thus erected, he endures much and weathers 
many storms and tortures. When he is adrift on a plank, 
in the storm of the ocean, he sees the fire of his hearth and 
feels the love of his kindred ; and they fire his hopes. When 
he is burning with fever and perishing in its fire, rosy health 
comes to his vision and buoys him in the struggle. When 
he is dying of hunger his intelligence is full of visions of 
tables laden with all that is good to eat. In his ignorance 
the roar of the thunder, the flash of the lightening, the 
storm and the earthquake terrify him, and in his fear and 
hopelessness he invokes the protection and comfort of a God ; 
superior to all laws, all elements and all evils. likewise, in 
his education and sympathy, in the contemplation of the 
wretchedness of humanity here, he sees the counterpart in a 
blistful, restful life hereafter in the cares of the Divine 
Protector. Ever seeking that which does not exist, ever 
reaching out to pluck the fruit that never grew, ever mount- 
ing to heights that have no steps to reach them, ever 
struggling to the blissful shore that ever recedes from his 
touch ; till he, poor victim that he is, sinks beneath the 



Of Matter, tlie Laws and the Life Thereof 25 

waves. Is this not the final end to such identity ? Should 
there not be a final end ? Is not that end the loss of con- 
sciousness ? Can that ever be revived ? Is it not fitting 
that it should not be ; Is it not as well so as a further con- 
tinuation of such an identit} 1 - ? 

53. Life feeds upon death and death upon life, and so 
it is written all over the Earth and upon all her monuments. 
We are here with our animal and insect comrades existing 
in a conscious identity of a momentary duration, of such 
significance in the whirl of matter under the dominion of 
law, that the entire blotting out of such existence, would 
be of no moment ; no consequence ; would never be missed 
nor its absence felt anywhere in the universe. We are born, 
broken, produced and destroyed ; mere bubbles upon the 
ceaseless waves of eternal matter. 

54. Let those who can, show that the intellect of man 
survives him, and that his identity survives therewith. 

Notwithstanding the conception is human and delusive, 
yet it is a pleasing allurement, and, when the conception 
can be brought from the domain of the ideal to the domain 
of the real, it will be hailed with intellectual delight 
indeed. 

The intellect of mail, by which he carries on the struggle 
for his brief existence, \>y which he observes the workings 
of the laws of the universe, measures and weighs the 
planets, tells the orbits thereof, the hour of their coming 
and going, and contemplates the things beyond the scope of 
his powers ; when this intellect is coined into a material 
substance of an identity eternal, it will not be under the 
present order of things. I take it that the intellect of the 



26 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

spider, that weaves the ingenious web, contemplates the 
coming of his victim, and maintains his existence by consu- 
mate dexterity, skill and craft, is of the same order and 
goes out with the flame of life that bears it. 

So also, that intellect by which the rattlesnake coils him- 
self, sounds the rattle of battle, and strikes the fangs of 
death into his enemy. And certainly is the intellect of 
that most constant and faithful of all creatures, the dog, 
and likewise, that subtle intellect of the bird, by which it 
feigns a hurt, and disability to fly from its enemy, to there- 
by allure him after her, and from her nest of eggs, which 
she feels to be endangered by his presence, and thus out- 
wits and out-generals the creature man, and thereby pre- 
serves and saves her brood from destruction at his hands. 
Will that intellect be saved in an eternal identity, and 
thus survive the death of. its mother ? 

Tell the substance of them all ; show that one is an 
identit}^ eternal and that the others are not. Show how 
it can be so and why it should be so. 

Does the blaze of the candle survive when the tallow is 
exhausted ? 

In what state of the intellect of man is it preserved ; is it 
as it was in his muling infancy, as it was in his developed 
vigor, as it was at his decline of four-score years and ten, 
when his vigor and force were well nighspent, or, as it was at 
the last breath of his life, the last flicker of the lamp, when 
the light thereof goes out with the oil thereof? 

55. All creatures of a temporary identity or conscious- 
ness, man, animals, insects, etc., are results or incidents of 
contacts occurring in the eternal motion of matter. 

56. Man being a finite being, a creature of a temporary 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof • 27 

duration, cannot comprehend laws and things eternal; to 
him such things are and ever must be impenetrable. And 
herein we are shown the true rank and place of the present 
man. 

57. He can observe some things in the operation of 
matter under the laws thereof. He can observe the fact that 
life on the earth comes of a contact of the sun's heat with the 
earth and its elements, and that there is much of a typical 
characteristic throughout the entire field of his observation, 
and that the greater the sun's heat and the greater the 
quantity of moisture in the contact, the greater is the 
product of vegetable and insect life under such contact. 

58. When the Earth with all the matter now in our solar 
system, was heid in solution, doubtless some contact occured 
that set the elements to work and the solar s} T stem ; was 
formed and organized the Earth as one of the parts of that 
system. Thus it became a member of the solar system it 
retained its fluid around it and its heat within it. In time 
its shell protruded and dry land was one of its features. 
Then came mountain making and the second periods of life 
on the Earth. 

59. We trace all creatures here, man and all, back to 
an egg form, spawn from the contact of matter. In some 
instances the egg is detached from the parent stem before 
the creature is organized, as in the case of a chicken, and in 
others it remains attached to the parent stem till completed, 
as in the case of man and animals. 

60. To my mind, the contact by which a creature is pro- 
duced now by the sexual process, is typical of the way of 



2 8 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

the first production thereof on the Earth after a catastrophe, 
and is likewise typical of the process by which the Earth 
itself was produced. I think so, because they all come of 
the same elements, and similar contacts, in which electric 
and magnetic currents are present; and because of the types 
Avhich show the law to be as described. 

61. To my mind it appears, that the formation of our 
solar system occurred in this manner; viz; Prior thereto 
the matter of that portion of space was doubtless held in 
solution. In the circular whirl of formed bodies and systems, 
that portion of space, and the matter thereof, came within 
the contact of the forces of different bodies or systems of 
formed bodies, — and by an operation of the magnetic and 
electric currents of that contact this matter was influenced, 
impregnated, vitalized, by which a new r system was con- 
ceived and formed, by the same process, bv the same law r s 
by which an}^ matter takes to itself an organized identity in 
life; insects, animals, man, planets, systems or what not- 
The process by which an insect becomes a thing of identity 
in life with organs, a grandmother, hoary with age, goes 
out of its identity in death, aud all in a few T hours of time, is 
no more of a mystery than the process by which a man, a 
planet, a sun, or a system of bodies does the same thing. 
In them all we see the operation of laws that Ave can not 
comprehend, and the one is just as easy and simple and 
obedient to those laws as the other, not any more or any less 
so. 

62. It is only by the catastrophic theory that we can 
account for the marked periods of the earth's crust and the 
mountains thereof. The remains of the creatures of life, of 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 29 

each period, the condition of the hairy elephant in the ice 
of Siberia, the covering over of the forest of ferns, etc. ; of 
those periods which formed our coal beds, and the phosphate 
beds of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, formed from 
the bones and flesh of those gigantic animals of a past period. 

63. The Precession theory, which is, that the earth turns 
one pole to the sun, and then back again, turning the 
other pole to the sun, thus leaving the North end to cool 
while the South end is warming, and the South end to 
cool while the North end is warming, has never been 
recognized nor accepted, and in no way comprehends nor 
accounts for the geological facts herein referred to. 

64. The rule of Bacon known as the inductive process 
of reasoning is a good enough rule when not restricted. I 
would state the rule thus : All truths harmonize and con- 
stitute an illimitable whole, each kindred to and connected 
with the others. 

So wnen a proposition seems in accord with all we know 
we should be inclined to accept it as correct ; and I would 
hunt out truth by no arbitrary rule, but by a perception 
aided by types and all things else that would quicken it to 
a penetration into the workings of the eternal laws of eter- 
nal matter in the illimitable domain of space and time. 

65. Wherever the sun's heat and moisture on the earth 
are the greatest, there the greatest product of life is shown. 
In portions of Brazil, S. A., these conditions are more 
favorable than anywhere else, and there even now, when 
man has attained to his present position of invention and 
power, he is unable to overcome the power of animal and 
insect life there, and is unable to put that land under his 



30 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

domain. (See History of Civilization in England by Buckle, 
Vol. I, Pages 74 and 75.) 

The following is quoted from the reference given : 
kk Brazil, which is nearly as large as the whole of Europe, 
is covered with a vegetation of incredible profusion. Indeed, 
so rank and luxuriant is the growth that Nature seems to 
riot in the vety wantonness of power. A great part of this 
immense country is filled with dense and tangled forests 
who'se noble trees, blossoming in unrivaled beauty and 
exquisite with a thousand hues, throw out their produce in 
endless prodigality. On their summit are perched birds of 
gorgeous plumage which nestle in their dark and lofty 
recesses. Below, their base and trunks are crowded with 
. brushwood, creeping plants, innumerable parasites, ail 
swarming with life. There are myriads of insects of every 
variety, reptiles of strange and singular form, serpents and 
lizards spotted with deadly beauty ; all of which find means 
of existence in this vast workshop and repository of nature. 
And that nothing may be wanting to this land of marvels 
the forests are skirted by enormous meadows, which, reeking 
with heat and moisture, supply nourishment to countless 
herds of wild cattle that browse and fatten on their herbage ; 
while the adjoining plains, rich in another form of life are 
the chosen abode of the subtlest and most ferocious ani- 
mals which prey on each other, but which it might almost 
seem no human power can hope to extirpate. 

' ' Such is the flow and abundance of life by which Brazil is 
marked above all other countries of the earth. But amid 
this pomp and splendor of Nature, no place is left for man. 
He is reduced to insignificance by the majesty with w T hich 
he is surrounded." 

66. The order of life on the earth in the Carboniferous 
and other periods when there were less mountains and but 
little if any ice and cold upon the earth, and when the life- 
giving heat of the sun spread itself unchecked more nearly 



0/ Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 31 

all over the Earth, there was a grander and more prolific 
and powerful product of living creatures on the Earth than 
now. The vitalizing heat having been checked and less- 
ened by the great quantity of ice retained on the Earth and 
the elevation of portions of the Earth's surface in subse- 
quent periods, the order of life in the subsequent periods 
was less powerful and destructive, so that man in this 
period has survived and is the most powerful of all his fel- 
lows. 

67. Darwinian Evolution is not in accord with these 
facts. The Evolutionists of this school say, too, that in 
those periods man was absent, had not yet evolved, yet 
they are compelled to admit that all the animals were of a 
much larger and more powerful and destructive character 
than now. The)' say man had not come in those periods, 
because they do not find his fossilized remains in the dirt 
and rocks of those periods. This is not conclusion, for pos- 
sibly man or some creature like unto him was there in the 
beginning, but fell a prey to his more powerful animal 
brothers in the beginning of the struggle, so that when that 
period went out in the catastrophe which marked the end 
of each period, man was not there and he had left no sign 
there, only the specimens that had survived till the catas- 
trophe came were laid away in the sand of that period, sub- 
merged and entombed by the awful rain and snow which 
fell in the catastrophe. 

68. Can the history of the gravel stones of the earth's 
crust, the history of the flesh and bones that made the 
phospate beads of South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, the 
history of the hairy elephant in the ice of Siberia or the 



32 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

cause of the continuous quakes of the earth's crust, be told 
outside of the lines of the catastrophic theory as stated ? 

69. Of the things of a temporary identity, insects, 
vegetation, animals and man, we may learn much, also of 
the operations of the laws to which they are subject ; but of 
things eternal, time and space, matter, force and the laws 
thereof, w 7 e cannot know them, much less encompass them, 
and this is the true position of the true agnostic. There is no 
such thing as a first cause in the forms of matter ; such an 
assumption presupposes a beginning and hence an ending. 
In the endless variety of the forms and types of living things, 
on the earth, the conception of progress, unfoldment, evolu- 
tion, has rooted itself in the minds of many thinkers. I 
think it is a mis-conception, draw r n from the dizzy maze of 
the ceaseless change of things in the boundless field of 
eternal motion. So also in the assumption that there is an 
unfoldment of things, evolution from nothing to something, 
from a beginning to a finish, for a finite being could have 
no correct conception of beginning and ending of infinite 
things, which have no beginning nor ending, neither can 
he have any correct conception of what is progressive or the 
contrary thereof in things eternal. These terms, as well 
as the conception to which they belong, have nothing to 
stand on ; they are anomalous, have no place in truth, and 
they have little, if any, application to things not eternal, 
man, animal and the like, they have but a momentary dura- 
tion and pass out of their frail and momentary identity into 
the endless sea of matter again, by the death wdiich soon 
overtakes that being, that identity ; and whatever it gains 
in the moment of life it holds, is lost to it in the death that 
follow\s that life. In the domain in which the intelligence 



Of Matter ; the Laws and the Life Thereof 33 

of that life is exercised there are such contracts with, and 
observations of the operations of the eternal laws, that much 
is learned of those operations ; not that the mind of man 
can comprehend those laws, but that the mind of man can 
become familiar with many of the characteristics and oper- 
ations thereof, and herein is the field where the intelligence 
of man so long as man exists, will ever struggle to learn 
more of the workings of the unfathomable laws of the 
unfathomable universe. Life on this earth in the various 
forms we find it, transmits itself according to the law, that 
like begets like, subject to the law by which there is a con- 
tinuous change in the conditions of matter. Sometimes 
this transmission of life seems to be in what we call a pro- 
gressive channel, at other times, retrogressive, but these 
deviations are always within limits, within such limits that 
no old species loses itself in a new one. 

At times these creatures of a brief conscious identity 
seem favored by happy conditions for awhile and then there 
is an apparent advancement or development, but the end of 
such things is soon reached, and the same in the retrograde 
movement produced by unfathomable conditions ; in short, 
it is not shown that any creature class, any species of liv- 
ing creatures ever evolved out of and beyond so as to lose 
themselves in some other distinct species. The ass and the 
horse are sufficiently similar to mingle and produce the 
mongreal ; the mule, somewhat different from both, but 
there the' limit is struck, for such offspring is sterile and so 
it is in a measure throughout. 

Certain conditions will improve or degrade the horse or 
the ass, but they w T ill remain horse and ass to the end, for 
the one step toward setting him out of or be}'Ond this limit 
raises a barrier to such a thing. 



34 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

While this is beyond human understanding, to my mind 
it is a strong denial of the Darwinian theory of the descent 
of man. 

70. Is there a higher intellect or intellectual force, than 
that of man ? If so, what is it, where is its abiding place, 
and what kin or comparison does it bear to the intellectual 
man? 

When we consider what an insignificent part, our mother 
Earth, is of the solar system, (without looking beyond) the 
assumption that mankind are the headlights and monopo- 
lists of all identified intelligence, must appear to be an 
absurd and erroneous assumption ; especialfy in view of 
the other fact that such intelligence is incapable of compre- 
hending any of the laws and but few of the facts pertaining 
to the things around him. I presume, however, that the 
ant in his hill holds too much the same kind of assumption 
relative to his superiors and accordingly assumes, that man 
and larger objects are creatures of motion, but without 
intelligence ; much after man's present conception of the 
bodies of space within his observation. That a thing has 
an identity in life is evidenced by the fact that that thing, 
poSvSesses force with the power of a discriminating exercise 
thereof. Intelligence is an attribute of all matter that has 
such an identity in life. A thing that has an existence in and 
of itself possessed of vital force in and of the life of the mat- 
ter composing it, is a thing of life and of intelligence. I 
deny that such life, such intelligence is limited to the 
creatures that inhabit the earth ; and aver that such a life 
and intelligence in man as well as that of all creatures on 
the earth was drawn from a force superior to, and not from 
a source inferior to man. 






Of Matter, the Lazes and the Life Thereof 35 

71. The intellect of Kepler, by many years of labor, 
thought and observation discovered some deeply hidden 
facts relative to force as exercised by the Sun upon the 
planets of his system, viz : that a line connecting the center 
of the earth with the center of the sun passes over equal 
spaces at equal times ; also, that the squares of the times 
of revolution of the planets about the sun are proportion- 
te to the cubes of their mean distance from the sun. The 
fact that the keenest and brightest specimen of man's intel- 
lect under the most favorable conditions, was scarcely able 
to penetrate to and grasp these truths, relating to the run- 
ning force of the solar system, is strong proof that these 
truths so discovered and relating to that system of things 
so superior to man and the earth, are but a few of the many 
other truths kindred thereto existing in that exalted system, 
but yet out of the range of man's intelligence ; and is also 
proof that the intellect of man is kindred to the intellect of 
that system, and that it is by this kindred character that his 
intellect is capable of comprehending some of the truths and 
intelligence of that superior realm of superior intelligence. 
So ma}* it not be true that there is intelligence abundantly 
superior to the intelligence of man ; that the sun of our 
system is an abiding place of such superior intelligence, 
and that the intellect of man has its origin therefrom ? 
The fact that all matter of an identity in life is possessed of 
an intelligence as an attribute of that life, is proof that 
intelligence comes by the contact by which that life is pro- 
duced, and is of that life. It would seem that if the creat- 
ure man on this planet had caught a touch of what we call 
intelligence, then the sun the center and source of the force 
and life of the solar system should not be void of this qual- 



36 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

ity, but that it must not only possess it, but in an eminent 
degree, and likewise all other suns and centres of system ; 
and that such are the abiding places of intelligence. That 
from such sources it is given forth ; the life giving proper- 
ties of these central bodies are given forth to all things in 
contact therewith. That life and intelligence are one and 
inseparable and flow together as one. The difference in 
intelligence of different things is, measured by the dif- 
ference in the matter and conditions producing them ; and 
the indurance thereof is measured by the indurance of the 
life force of the things. To illustrate, an insect, a few 
hours ; a man a few years ; a sun a long while longer than 
the intellect of man can now span. 

72. The comets in their actions are the wonder of all 
observers ; those of them having their orbits within the 
solar system seem more in accord with the known char- 
acteristics of the laws of the solar system, by which the 
sun holds the planets in their places, than those comets 
whose journeys or orbits extend far beyond the solar sys- 
tem. 

The laws of the sun's force in his system, as discovered 
by the observations of Pythagoras, Copernicus, Kepler, 
Galileo, and Newton, are apparently violated by these 
comets, in their coming into and going out of the solar 
system. They come into the solar system, seem to be 
received by the sun, by him are sent forth again, beyond . 
his system, to other systems and to other suns. 

This remarkable and puzzling characteristic of the sun's 
application of force, repellant and attractive, to these com- 
ets, so different from the manner by which the sun's force 
is applied to the planets within his system ; (in that the 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 37 

comets seem subject to other and different influences and 
laws, and not obedient to the laws by which the planets are 
governed) has thus far baffled the intellect of man to com- 
prehend or explain. 

It has occurred to me that when a comet goes beyond the 
sun's system, into another system, it falls under the influ- 
ence of the sun of that system, becomes subject to the force, 
attractive and repellant thereof, and is received and returned 
or sent elsewhere by the force from that sun in like manner 
as it was first received and sent forth by the sun that first 
sent it forth. 

It has also occurred to me that the sun himself is not an 
automaton but a thing of life and intellect, and that 
the apparent discrimination in the application of force 
under the laws in his domain is an intellectual dis- 
crimination by which, force, varied by intellectual 
knowledge thereof, is applied to the comets in a 
different degree, and for special and intellectual pur- 
poses ; that the comets are messengers of the suns ; or 
mediums of intercourse hy which they hold intercourse 
with other bodies in and out of their own systems. 

If the sun is not a thing of life, exercising an inherent 
impulse and power intellectual of its own, in harmony 
with the law of its being, then it is a dumb subject offeree, 
and exists and acts in obedience thereto, a mere automa- 
ton, charged with its force from some other source like 
that which I conceive the sun in itself to be. 

That the sun is not such a subject seems evident from 
the fact that the life b}^ which he and his whole system, 
as well as the comets of both classes are controlled, is with- 
in and of the sun himself ; for he seems to be the source of 



38 Of Matter, the Laics and the Life Thereof 

the force and the life the intelligence by which all things 
in his system are governed. Is it not therefore a creature 
of identity in life, of intelligence, and accordingly the 
source of all life and all intelligence within his system? 
He seems possessed of the power of supplying again the 
vital force he throws off, and of sustaining his vitality 
against exhaustion or destruction from any quarter. 

73. We are learning more and more of the characteristics 
of the sun, that the corona as seen in the total eclipse of 
the sun by the moon, is an appendage of the sun, and is one 
of the most interesting subjects that has ever engaged the 
attention of astronomers and scientists. 

Until we know the elements and characteristics of the 
sun, of its corona, its rays of light, and something of the 
intervening elements, we cannot know to what extent the 
processes of life expression within our observation are like 
or unlike this process by which the life on this earth is 
produced in the first instance after the catastrophes herein 
before described. It is enough for all that is here claimed 
— to show that the sun is possessed of life-giving force and 
power. 

75. It should be remembered that the earth is mainly 
passive, that its actions are by the direct or indirect force of 
the sun, that it is not so with the sun, he not only supplies 
and perpetuates himself, but he supplies the life and force 
necessary to the maintainance of all his system — in this 
respect we are like the sun in a meager or typical way — we 
have the power of supplying ourselves, of sta}dng waste 
and maintaining intact our identities, and thus it is that we 
have organs and intellect : these are not characteristics of 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 39 

the earth, I think they are in a way characteristics of the 
sun. 

76. If life on this earth was produced by the contact of 
the earth's elements and the sun's elements, does it not 
follow that this life partook of the blended characteristics 
of these two classes of elements, and in obedience to the law 
that "L,ike begets like"? 

May not the intellect of the creatures of this life have 
come from the sun ? 

Does not the sun's care and control of the planets of his 
system, — members of his household, — seem characterized 
by an intelligence, working harmoniously with eternal 
laws? And likewise, do not the actions of the comets 
under his power and control, by an intelligence working 
in harmony with the law of centripetal and centrifugal 
force, apparently different from the action of the planets,) 
indicate an intellectual discrimination in the exercise of 
the sun's power ? When we note how he holds the planets 
steadily and constantly in their respective positions around 
him, and how he sends the comets off beyond his own system, 
as his messengers to and from other suns, and other systems, 
coming and going by force attractive and force repellant diff- 
erently applied and apparently for the purpose of intelligent 
communication and intercourse; may we not hope we have 
found our intellectual source ? where intelligence is in 
harmonious action with eternal laws in their operation on 
eternal matter, in a much more eminent degree than we 
find it here upon the earth ? 

If the sun is a thing of identity in life, its identity will 
hold to it so long as that life exists, and when that life goes 
out so will its intelligence go out therewith; for in my con* 



40 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

ception there is no such thing as detached intelligence that 
survives the life of the substance that produces and vitali- 
zes it. 

77. In my conception, a thing of life is a thing of 
conscious identity. The life or intelligence of such thing 
is one and inseparable, is fashioned after, or by, the matter 
thereof, and is of that order of matter; and thus, it is that 
when the life of that thing goes out so does the intelligence 
thereof go out, for they are one and the same. Note the star 
fish, man, the sun: the star fish is of an extremely low order 
of life, man is a high order, the sun is of an extremely high 
order. 

The proposition that all things of identity in life are pro- 
duced by the contact of different elements of matter is incon- 
testible; likewise is the proposition that such things partake 
of the characteristics of the different elements in the contact: 
Is not the proposition that all life on the earth is produced 
by the contact of the sun's elements with the elements of 
the earth likewise incontestible ? Then, if such be our 
ancestory, let us not ignore the paternal side thereof, let us 
give credit there for the intelligence we bear. 

78. I quote the following from Humboldt's Cosmos, 
vol. 4, page 59-60: "The sun considered as the central 
body." "The lantern of the world (lucerna mundi) as 
Copernicus names the sun, enthroned in the center, is, 
according to Theron of Smyrna, the all vivifying pulsating 
heart of the universe, the primary source of light and of 
radiating heat, and the generator of numerous terrestrial 
electromagnetic processes, and indeed of the greater part of 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 41 

the organic vital activit}^ upon our planet, more especially 
that of the vegetable kingdom. 

In considering the expression of solar force in its widest 
generality, we find that it gives rise to alterations on the 
surface of the earth — partly by gravitation attraction — 
as in the ebb and flow of the ocean, partly by light and 
heat generating traverse vibrations of ether, as in the 
fructifying admixture of the aeriel and aqueous envelopes of 
our planet from the contact of atmosphere with the vapor- 
izing fluid elements on seas, lakes and rivers. The solar 
action operates moreover by differences of heat in exciting 
atmospheric and oceanic currents; it operates in the genera- 
tion and maintenance of the electro-magnetic activity of the 
earth's crust and that of the oxygen contained in the 
atmosphere; at one time calling forth calm and gentle forces 
of chemical attraction, and variously determining organic 
life in the cndosmose of cell-walls and in the tissue of 
muscular and nervous fibers; at another time looking light 
processes of the atmosphere, such as the coruscations of the 
polar light, the thunder and lightning, hurricanes and water 
spouts. 

Our object in endeavoring to compress in one picture the 
influences of solar action, in so far as they are independent 
of the orbit and the position of the axis of our globe, has 
been clearly to demonstrate by an exposition of the con- 
nection existing between great and, at first sight, heteroge- 
nous phenomena, how physical nature ma}^ be depicted in 
the History of the Cosmos as a whole, moved and animated 
by internal and frequently self-adjusting forces. But the 
waves of light not onh- exert a decomposing and recombin- 
ing action on the corporeal world — they not only call forth 



42 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Tliei-eof 

the tender germs of plants from the earth, generate the 
green coloring matter (Chlorophyll) within the leaf, and 
give color to the fragrant blossom — they not only produce 
myriads of reflected images of the sun in the graceful play 
of the waves as in the moving grass of the field, but the 
rays of the celestial light in the varied gradations of their 
intensity and duration are also mysteriously connected 
with the inner life of man, his intellectual susceptibilities, 
and the melancholy or cheerful tone of his feelings. 

79. It has occurred to me that if the several govern- 
ments of the earth were to establish an international con- 
gress of astronomers, geologists, chemists and scientists 
generally; and employ their concentrated thought, labor 
and skill continuously with an ample supply of means with 
w T hich to procure all things with w T hich to facilitate the 
research for the discovery of fact relative to the laws of 
the elements of the sun and the earth, the contacts thereof, 
and of life and death, that facts, means and ways would be 
discovered by which the elements of the earth which seem 
to give the taint of death and decay to all her children, 
might be counteracted, and thereby, the life of man pro- 
longed and made to endure for ages. As it now is, every 
creature of earth seems to show in a meager but inadequate 
degree, that characteristic of the laws b}^ which exhaustion 
is supplied in the vital force of all creatures, and which 
seems to exist in such an eminent degree in the sun. If 
man could but learn how to avoid or recuperate the waste 
and decay of the vital forces and to thus catch the wave of 
life and miss the wave of death that seems to flow from 
the contacts of the elements of the sun and the earth, then 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 43 

his footing would be so permanent that his struggle to 
maintain his existence would be less fitful, violent, vain 
and delusive, then would he ascend to a higher plane of 
life; then might the higher virtues supplant the coarser and 
sordid impulses; and in the wisdom thereof, he might 
overcome the necessities that exist in the hand to hand 
struggle for the moment of existence he now maintains; 
then would there be time to dispel the ignorance and 
delusions which now envelop him, and possibly eliminate 
the necessity for selfishness in the struggle; time to learn 
real truth, real virtue and real strength, then would the 
millennium come; the true economy of things be understood 
and practiced; and the earth become the home of wisdom, 
happiness and life, instead of the scene of ignorance, delu- 
sion, torture and death. 

80. Old altars and faiths are crumbling. What is to 
be erected upon their ruins ? My hope is in the labor of 
the Scientists, that the}' by their researches and observa- 
tions, of the workings of the laws of matter and of the 
life and intelligence thereof — that they may find the balm 
of Gilead, the way by which man in his intelligence 
may find a firmer footing in a longer endurance and 
existence in his identity in life. 

81. In all that we can see and know of matter under 
the laws thereof, there seems to be enough of order and 
system therein to suggest a Designer, a Divinity, a Force In- 
tellectual. 

The life and intelligence upon the earth is identified by 
the creatures in life upon the earth. Not so I take it with 
the life and intelligence of the Sun; they are unified there- 



44 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

with, and are of the law of the Universe, of the Divinity of 
the universe. 

82. The fact that the matter of man's composition un- 
dergoes an entire change every seven years, is suggestive 
of the hope that in such change, and renewal of matter and 
life, there is a way to avoid the rapid waste and decay we 
now experience; and likewise suggests that if we but knew 
how it is that the sun preserves himself against waste and 
deca} T , that thereby our eyes might be opened to a knowledge 
by which we might in like manner preserve ourselves in a 
longer and wiser existence. 

83. The Sun is recognized as the source of all life on the 
earth; it must follow that it is the source of the intelligence 
of that life. 

84. Recurring now to the Darwinian theory of evolution, 
and thereof the descent of man; the fact which seems to con- 
stitute the strongest support to that theory is the fact that 
man, in the early stages of his career, in his mother's womb, 
appears to have a tail; hence it is argued that he has descend- 
ed from tailed ancestors. According to my observation, and 
conception of this fact, the apparent tail to the embryo man 
is not a tail at all in the sense claimed; but is simply a stor- 
age of material, which, in due course, is worked in to the 
full formation of the creature. That this material must be held 
in some place and form, is evident; that it is held in the shape 
shown, and used for the purpose stated, is proof of nothing 
but the simple facts, that it is so held and used. 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 45 

85. But I take it that Mr. Darwin himself is not firm in 
the faith of the theory that bears his name, as is shown by 
his own candid treatment of the subject in his w T ork entitled 
"The Origin Of Species," Chapter VI, Chapter VII, and 
Chapter X. 

86. Except the changes brought about in the domesticat- 
ing of some animals and fowls, and the extinguishment of 
some varieties, there has been no change in the forms, order 
and variety of the creatures of life on the earth since the last 
Glacial. 

87. It is likewise evident that the creatures of life, prior 
to the last Glacial, were different from the creatures of life 
since then. 

88. If it can be shown that the Glacial is a hiatus, that 
marks the line between the dead of a past period and the liv- 
ing of the present period, then the life of the present period 
does not descend from the life on the other side of the glac- 
ial, and the Darwinian theory of descent falls to the ground. 

89. While- it may be doubted that the glacials occurred 
in the manner as herein stated, it cannot be doubted that the 
glacials actually occurred. Is not that fact sufficient of itself 
to prove the proposition that all life must have perished in 
the catastrophe that brought it about ? And independent too 
of the monuments of the dead of the period, that commem- 
orate and verify such an event. To doubt this proposition is 
co admit want of reflection upon it. 

90. It is evident that the heat that was necessary to send 
up in vapor, enough water with which to make the rain, the 
snow and the ice for the glacial, was greater than that be- 
stowed by the sun; and that such increased heat would be. 



46 Of Matter, the Lazes and the Life Thereof 

destructive of life; that this heat necessarily came from with- 
in the earth, otherwise it could not have come in contact 
w r ith the water of the earth, so as to produce the evaporation 
thereof, which actually occurred to produce the rain and 
snow 7 which actually preceeded the glacial. 

■91. The change in the condition of the elements, to a 
dense cloud of vapor, miles in depth, covering the entire 
earth, for years probably, w r as a necessary condition for such 
result, and would be destructive of life. The Sun's force thus 
shut off from the creatures of life of the earth for any con- 
siderable length of time, would put an end to the growth of 
herbage and food, and would be destructive of life. 

92. But I deem it sufficient to refer, on this point, to 
the mountains themselves — say the ranges on the Western 
side of the American Continents, together with the facts 
shown by the Geological records thereof, amongst which 
are — 

1 st. The tops of these mountains were once ocean 
bottom. 

2nd. The upheaval force that produced them was rapid 
in the finish of their formation. 

3rd. That heat and water were present therein. 

4th. That steam force was a prominant actor in the 
result shown. 

93. It is evident beyond doubt, that in such upheavals, 
upon the then edge of the ocean, the contact of the water 
and heat necessar} 7 to the result shown, were upon a grand 
scale, sufficient to put our mother earth into a state ap- 
proaching dissolution, and a return to that gaseous, or vapor 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 47 

state, in which she existed before her present formation; 
that she remained in this condition for a considerable time, 
is evident that the atmosphere around her was thereby 
charged with a great quantity of heat, and fumes from her 
internal sources, that one third, one half, or more, of all the 
water of all the oceans, was sent up in vapor; that the 
atmosphere carrying this amount of water was deep and 
dense; that in this condition of things, for the time necessary 
to w T ork the changes that followed, with the sun's force so 
utterly cut off from the surface of the earth and ocean; no 
creature of the air, the ocean or the earth, at all, could retain 
life in such condition of things; so all then perished. 

94. The cold of the Glacial that followed, while sufficient 
to destroy all living creatures on that part of the earth it 
covered, found none there to destroy. It did not reach the 
equator, or near thereto, where the earth's spawn was 
waiting in its beds of warmth and moisture for the vivifying 
rays of the coming sun, and life thereby again started upon 
the earth. 

95. It must be remembered that the mind of men can not 
penetrate to the comprehension of this, nor any other law 
of matter, of life, nor of intelligence. The}' are be}^ond him 
and his powers. As yet he only has perception and intelli- 
gence to observe and trace the operations thereof, and thereby 
learn some of the facts and characteristics thereof. 

96. Human Automatism has engaged the attention of 
some of the best thinkers, and man}- curious facts have been 
gathered touching the Automatan characteristics of insects, 
animals and man. It will be noted that the earth is entirely 



48 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

automaton, entirely void of force — unless it be an attribute 
of the elements which escape from within through the rents 
in the crust oi the earth during the Catastrophes described — 
yet, every living creature she bears is more or less charged 
in some degree with the force intellectual, as distinct from 
mechanical. In man, the force intellectual is pre-eminently 
superior to the same in any other creature on earth. From 
whence comes this force ? And what are its possibilities in 
the struggle for the preservation of its identily ? 
In the force, or forces of the sun, there must be a force 
intellectual, else intelligence is an attribute of the unified 
force of the sun. The earth seems passive, with no such 
force as a part thereof. Every organic being on the earth 
is possessed of this force intellectual, in some degree, as 
an attribute of its existence, its identity, and the organs 
thereof are produced by this force, intellectual. 

It being an incontestable proposition, that all life on the 
earth must trace its origin, its source, to the contact of the 
sun's elements with the earth's elements; it follows that 
this force intellectual is from the sun. 

It may be said that this Force Intellectual is God in the 
Universe, and that He comes with, and is a part of the 
things eternal hereinbefore enumerated, viz : Time, Space, 
Matter and the laws theieof. And this is doubtless the 
truth of it: If not so, whence the source of the force 
intellectual, and likewise the God, the Designer in the 
universe. 

It is already conceded in Scientific circles, that light and 
electricity are one. Then the sun is a source of electricity. 
Is the force electric any easier of comprehension than the 
force intellectual? 



Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 49 

How insignificant and powerless is man, yet how illimit- 
able is he in hope ! Is it possible for him, in the undefined 
domain of his possibilities, in the penetrable avenues of 
undiscovered facts, armed as he is with his expiring spark 
of force intellectual, to gather enough to enable him to 
learn how to preserve that force "in its identity here, long 
enough to gather to itself the character and properties of an 
enduring existence? 

The intellect of man, in its struggle for more light in 
this dark and seething sea of ignorance, selfishness, cruelty, 
pain and death, is now coming so rapidly into • touch 
with the force of the Sun of this system, that the dawn 
of a new day seems to be breaking upon it. The intellect- 
ual cry for more light is so penetrating, and so intense, 
that sooner or later it must be felt at the kindred source, 
and there strike a chord that will vibrate in sympathetic 
harmony from Sun to earth, Heaven to Hell, God to man. 
Then may it be that man's intellect will throb to a new 
order of things, and be in fellowship with things eternal. 

Now, in conclusion, I have to say, that the foregoing 
96 condensations, show the basis of a work in three parts,f 
which I may some time properly arrange, and complete, 
with the sustaining evidence elaborately set forth. I 
now have much evidence in store, sufficient I think to 
sustain all the propositions stated, except possibly those 
relative to the Sun and force intellectual; and as to 
them, the amount of evidence already gathered, when 
fully analized and set forth, will at least be of interest. 

My purpose in making this condensed statement of the 
matter is simply this; I intend to have about 100 copies of 
the same struck off, and have them sent to persons whose 



50 Of Matter, the Laws and the Life Thereof 

intellectual powers I esteem, by reason of acquaintance with 
them, or their works, trusting that some of them, in return, 
ma}' favor me with such criticisms thereof as may occur to 
them, and with such new facts as seem to fortify, or to over- 
throw any of the propositions stated. 

John C. Stauxup. 
Tacoma, Washington, 
December, 1891. 



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